[Mike P]

The Staten Island ferry is operated by the Marine and Aviation Division of the NYC Dept of Transportation. Regardless of funding, the Coast Guard regulations control staffing. And I would imagine that a vessel of that size (3000+ gross tons) requires both a Master and a Mate on the bridge during under-way operations. Plus, the Staten Island terminal is adjacent to the Kill van Kill shipping channel, which has a lot of large ship traffic--the Port Newark and Port Elizabeth container terminals and the Hess refinery are both accessed via that channel. So I'm sure the regs require at least 2, maybe 3, pairs of eyes in the wheelhouse.

Part of the problem might be this "two master" tradition. Until it's clear that the "senior" captain is supposed to be in the forward wheelhouse at all times, you can't lay the blame on him. For all we know, his duty station might be in the aft wheelhouse on that leg, and a Mate in the forward wheelhouse may have vapor locked when the "assistant" captain blacked out.

Richard Smith, the officer who reportedly suffered the blackout and who later tried to kill himself, was licensed as a Master and a Pilot for that route. He was the "assistant" Master who traditionally commands the ferry on the Staten Island bound leg. He was also in command of that very same ferry, the Barbieri, when it suffered a mechanical failure in 1995 and collided with the boarding ramp at the very same slip back in 1995. He was given some sort of commendation for his handling of that incident.